| A | B |
|---|
| artha | material success and social prestige |
| Four goals | artha, kama, dharma, moksha |
| ascetic | one who renounces physical pleasures and worldly attachments for the sake of spiritual advancement |
| Atman | the eternal self identified with Brahman |
| atman | signifies the eternal soul of an individual that is reincarnated |
| avatar | an incarnation of a deity sent to earth to accomplish a divine purpose |
| Bhagavad-Gita | A section of an epic poem, Hinduism'smost popular sacred text |
| Brahman | the eternal essence of reality |
| Brahmin | caste made up of priest and teachers |
| Four castes | Brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, shudra |
| castes | social categories dividing Hindu society into classes |
| dharma | ethical duty based on the divine order of reality |
| kama | Pleasure, especially sensual love |
| kshatriya | caste made up of warriors and administrators |
| maya | cosmic illusion brought about by divine creative power |
| moksha | Salvation, liberation or release of the individual self, atman, from te bondage of samsara, reincarnation. |
| monism | the doctrin that reality is ultimately made up of only one substance ant that all things share a common essence |
| Three Paths | Devotion, knowledge, works |
| Devotion | The most popular path to salvation, emohasizes lving devotion to one'schosen god or goddess |
| Knowledge | A path of salvation that emphasizes knowing the true nature of realty through learning and meditation |
| Works | A path of salvation that emphasizes dong right actions according to dharma |
| Rig Veda | Hinduism's oldest sacred text |
| samadhi | A trance-like state in which self-consciousness is lost, and the mind is absorbed into the ultimate reality; the culmination of the eight steps of Yoga |
| samsara | the wheel of rebirth or reincarnation; the this-worldly realm in which rebirth occurs |
| Sankya | A system of Hindu philosophy and one approach in the path of knowledge, which asserts that realty is composed of two distinct categories: mater and eternal selves |
| Vedanta | a system of Hindu philosophy and one approach within the Path of Knowledge, which holds that all realtiy is essentially Brahman. |
| Yoga | A system of Hindu philosophy and one approach within the Path of Knowledge, shich seeks to free the eternal self from the bondage of personhood, culminating in the experience of samadhi. |
| yoga | Generally refers to physical and psychological techniques for spiritual advancement |
| sannyasin | A wandering ascetic who has advanced to the highest stage of life |
| sati | The traditional practice of burning a widow on her husband's funeral pyre, outlawed in 1829 |
| shudra | caste made up of servants and laborers |
| Upanishads | A collection of over 200 texts that provide philosophical commentary on the Vedas |
| vaishya | a caste made up of farmers, merchants, and artisans |
